SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”. Be sure to look at the Home School Resources at the bottom of the column today for a couple of real gems that are easy to obtain.
Liter of Light
I’ve seen solar lights made out of old plastic bottles before, but usually, they were just stuck in a wall or the ceiling and channeled the sun. Now the Liter of Light project is teaching people to use them in more ways. A small LED flashlight placed in the neck of the bleach filled bottle gives them new life. They still work in the traditional sunlight refraction method. However, now they can also be used at night. Coupled with a small solar panel, you have a renewable and inexpensive method of light. Thanks to T.J. for the link.
Sanitation
Paratus Business News has posted an article on “Life without Toilets”. This is a pretty in depth look at many of the issues that will be facing populated areas if the grid goes down or major sewage treatment issues arise. It takes a look at some of the issues that occurred during hurricane Isaac in New Orleans. Of particular interest in the YouTube video where a beach in India is profiled. 25,000 people in close proximity and only 4 community toilets. The beach is a dangerous place to walk.
Second Amendment
A Michigan grandfather was allegedly told that he would have to give up his firearms in order to foster his own grandchild. He had a CCW permit and was searched and then ordered to produce any firearm that he might have to be registered with the state. State law dictates that foster parents must register all firearms and keep them locked in a safe in order to be a foster parent. He has filed suit that he constitutional rights were violated. It will be interesting to see where this goes. Thanks to DSV for the link.
Steve the Robot Cop Update
Knightscope, the company that made the autonomous security robot that toppled into a fountain earlier this week is back in the headlines. The company is has taken the failure in stride creating a Twitter channel @K5steveisalive so his new found friends can receive updates on his recovery. The company has tongue-in-cheek responded by stating that Steve is alive, but on life-support. From a marketing perspective, the company has made some wise moves. However, each one of these failures provides a learning opportunity in order for the company to improve the product. SkyNet, here we come.
Tracking 100 Million Cell Phones
Reader B.B. sent in this article on what it takes to track 100 million cell phones simultaneously. It gets a bit technical, but it is well worth the read. The bottom line? It takes one new intern and 6 months of programming. That’s it all it takes even when you can’t modify the phones or get the users to install software. You can bet that your cell phone is being tracked by multiple sources at any one time.
Asset Seizure
Reader A.W. wrote in asking if it was possible to protect your property from civil asset seizure by registering the property and vehicles as the property of an LLC. Hopefully someone with knowledge of the actual laws used to seize property can respond. But as far as I can tell, the pedigree of the property is irrelevant. Even if your second cousin who lives across the country owns the property, it was in your possession when the seizure happened and they are just out-of-luck.
Home School Resources
Back in ’85 I purchased a 50th anniversary set of Roger Tory Peterson Field Guides bound in leather. I didn’t purchase them because I wanted to read them; I just liked leather bound books, and they were “shelf decoration”. Over the years, I have occasionally opened one or two, glancing at the topics. Mostly they just sat on the shelf unread. This month, I finally sat down and started opening and reading them. Wow! What a surprise. These books are an amazing compilation of information on an amazing breadth of subjects. The titles—Birds, Butterflies, Trees, Shrubs, Wildflowers, Medicinal Plants, Stars and Planets, and many more—are available. It never occurred to me to use these as I home schooled my children, but I sure would now!
Also, being of a scientific mind, I have always been annoyed at the childish and sometimes foolish theories put forward by Christians to explain earth science. When it came time to teach earth science to my children, I created my own curriculum based upon Walt Brown’s book “In the Beginning”. As a Christian, if you haven’t read this book, you need to.
The last printed version was in 2008. You can still get a copy of it, but the online version is updated as new developments are discovered and is free to access. I have long rejected evolution as unsound science but have been embarrassed by most creation theories. Walt Brown finally makes it all tie together and shows scientifically how things that evolution can’t explain are easily tied to Noah’s flood. Sound scientific principles are followed, and the subject is covered comprehensively. Walt has never been proven wrong in over 30 years, and the subject is brought down to an understandable level. I highly recommend this resource.
Regarding sanitation: The Paratus Business News article on “Life without Toilets” has a link to the SurvivalBlog article, “Preparing Now For Good Sanitation After The SHTF”, dated April 5, 2014. This article is good information, but I want to add another possible solution for those households that have a septic tank system.
Our septic tank has a filter on the outflow drain that has to periodically cleaned. Rather than removing the soil to expose the tank access points each time this job needs to be done, I installed risers to bring the two access points above ground. Now, it is just a matter of minutes to remove the access covers, inspect the tank, and clean the filter.
Having an above grade access to the septic tank would make disposing of human waste via the bucket system described in the SurvivalBlog artice a relatively easy task.
Asset seizure, just like most of our problems with our government is OUR fault. You and I vote our personal priorities and we vote into office people who do things like this and worse. Then to compound that problem we don’t vote them out or show up at public meetings and be outraged by their actions. IMHO we are literally on the verge of losing our great republic and we quietly do nothing to reverse course. Think about it; the Republicans have congress and the presidency and we can’t even end Obamacare as promised. Our politicians are not just useless and ineffective they are corrupt and anti-American. We are in the the long SHTF and we better recognize it soon.